Our Mission
We strive to empower aspiring youth basketball players through development training that embodies our core principles: relentless Energy, consistent Effort, and skillful Execution.
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We are dedicated to fostering a culture of passion for the game, work-ethic, and mastery, as we strive to unlock the full potential of each of our student-athletes.
Our Core Values
Our Story
Where you are now doesn’t determine where you can go; it merely determines where you start. This has always been a guiding philosophy for myself, Clyburn Cunningham IV, and my two brothers, Quincy and D’Andre Cunningham, co-owners of 3THW.
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We’ve lived and breathed hoops since we were children. As first generation hoopers from humble beginnings, we didn’t have the means to play organized ball or get professional training. In fact, I vividly remember our mom telling us, “You have to make your high school basketball teams; those teams don’t cost money.” Determined not to let our circumstances determine our destinies, we took our development as basketball players into our own hands.
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Without a hoop at home or a consistent trainer, we walked to outdoor courts and relied on each other to observe, understand, and critique each other's games as we worked towards becoming great basketball players. All three of us played high-level high school basketball, competing in meaningful games on championship-contending teams, largely thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears we shed on those outdoor courts. Despite this success, we felt like we could have achieved even more with professional training.​
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The foundation we laid then, which rested on Energy, Effort, and Execution, in addition to the mutual feeling that we had unfinished business with basketball, led to Quincy becoming a Division-1 Assistant Coach for Purdue Fort Wayne’s Women’s Basketball team, myself becoming a high-level high school basketball coach at 23 years old, and the three of us founding a basketball training company dedicated to serving kids like us, in need of guidance towards greatness.
Join us at 3 the Hard Way and embark on a transformative basketball journey where we ignite greatness within every student athlete the best way we know how – the hard way.